Birth name Darin Pappas Role Artist Name Ithaka Pappas | Years active 1983–until present | |
Born July 8, 1966
Anaheim, California, United States ( 1966-07-08 ) Origin Southern California, United States Occupation(s) Vocalist, lyricist, poet, contemporary artist, writer, photographer, producer Associated acts Gabriel o Pensador, Underground Sound of Lisbon, DJ Vibe, Rui da Silva, Mario Caldato, Jr., Norman Cook Albums Recorded in Rio, Stellafly, Saltwater Nomad Genres Hip hop music, West Coast hip hop, Trip hop, Spoken word, Electronic dance music Record labels Valentim de Carvalho, Twisted Records Similar People Underground Sound of Lisbon, DJ Vibe, Marta Dias, General D, Cool Hipnoise | ||
Miss kittin ft ithaka miss kittin intro so get up
Creator of the EDM vocal-poem "So Get Up" and the hip hop song "Escape From The City Of Angels", Ithaka Darin Pappas, better known simply as Ithaka, is an American contemporary artist, (sculptor, painter), photographer, songwriter, vocalist, hip hop artist, writer, poet, record producer and surfer of partial Greek descent. Ithaka was born and raised in Southern California, but later established himself in Japan, Greece, Portugal, Brazil and Mexico. The artist currently resides in California.
Contents
- Miss kittin ft ithaka miss kittin intro so get up
- Ithaka vs cartell 70 fuse with me
- The Reincarnation Of A Surfboard
- Photographer
- Eazy E NWA photographs by Ithaka Darin Pappas
- Aliens Of AkahtiLndia
- So Get Up Controversy
- The Tomas Blots
- Influence in marijuana and cannabis culture
- Ithaka poem
- Solo releases
- Solo art exhibits sculpture painting photography
- Group art exhibits
- Guest musical appearances
- Music used in other media
- Articles and short stories written by Ithaka
- Book appearances
- Magazine and web articles and interviews
- Documentaries
- Selected commercial photography work
- So Get Up
- Songs
- References
In Lisbon he recorded his first two hip hop albums, Flowers And The Color Of Paint and Stellafly. His song, Escape From The City Of Angels appeared on the soundtrack for Columbia Pictures' feature release, The Replacement Killers. He is also the lyricist/vocalist of the vocal-poem So Get Up that has been used on a multitude of different electronic dance music instrumentals. The first musical version of his poem was publicly released by Underground Sound of Lisbon
During his active years in Portugal, the artist's musical projects were nominated for a total of nine Blitz Awards (the Portuguese equivalent of The Grammy Awards) including; Best Album (for "Flowers And The Color Of Paint" in 1995 and Stellafly in 1997) and Best Male Vocalist (in 1995 & 1997). In addition, the prestigious national newspaper, Publico awarded his 1997 release Stellafly as "Album Of The Year" and considered his most popular song from that record Seabra Is Mad as both the "Song Of The Year" and "Video Of The Year". In an end of the decade retrospective article about Portuguese music, Publico also cited his debut release "Flowers And The Color Of Paint" as one of the country's Ten Most Influential Albums Of The 1990s.
In 1994, the international hit "So Get Up" that Ithaka wrote and first vocalized in 1993 and later rerecorded for Underground Sound Of Lisbon's first E.P. release Chapter One was nominated for "Song Of The Year" at that year's Blitz Awards, and later climbed to 8th Place on Billboard's U.K. Independent Dance Charts (and 52nd on Billboard's U.S. independent Dance Charts). More than twenty years after its original release (with at leased one-thousand and twenty-nine released remixes of the original vocal) So Get Up was deemed by Guinness World Records as being The Most Remixed Vocal A Cappella in musical history.
In 1998, after over six years in Portugal, Ithaka returned to California where he recorded his third album called Somewhere South Of Somalia with producer Conley Abrams III. The lyrics from this album were written on a two-month journey into East Africa. Later Ithaka relocated his base to Rio de Janeiro where he recorded two more albums, Recorded In Rio and Saltwater Nomad. In 2007, he briefly returned to Portugal to record with former Underground Sound of Lisbon member DJ Vibe, providing vocals and lyrics for the track "You".
In 2011, Sweatlodge Records released Fishdaddy Flashbacks highlighting some of the artist's more memorable songs from the beginning of his career in 1994 until 2011. And in early 2013, Ithaka produced his first all instrumental album, Voiceless Blue Raven. And also collaborated with the seventy-six-year-old trip hop vocalist, Cyncy. Both projects for the indy label Sweatlodge Records.
In addition to creating music, his short story series entitled, Fishdaddy Chronicles, has appeared in surfing magazines around the world including Surfer (magazine), The Surfer's Journal, Water and Transworld Surf". In 2009, his short story "Miracle At Malibu" was published in the book entitled Surf Story, a collective volume of stories and surf culture compiled by Robb Havassy.
His abstract photographic art and body of sculpture work known as The Reincarnation Of A Surfboard have been exhibited globally, his most recent solo showings were hosted by The Camp in Costa Mesa, California in June 2010, Gallery Alma Do Mar in São Paulo, Brazil in October 2010, WOA-Way Of Arts in Lisbon, Portugal in December 2012 ., Hurley International in Orange County, California in October 2013 and F+ Gallery in Santa Ana, California (Feb-Mar 2015).
Between 2010 and 2015, the artist created most of his musical, photographic and sculptural works at Recanto Akahti, his small ranch in rural South America located on the edge of the Atlantic Forest in AkahtiLândia.
Ithaka vs cartell 70 fuse with me
The Reincarnation Of A Surfboard
In 1989, while living in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, Ithaka began one of the major art projects of his life, The Reincarnation Of A Surfboard. This is a large body of contemporary sculpture work created using garbaged surfboards as raw building material and recycling them into contemporary wall-mounted art pieces. The series to date, which is said to contain an estimated three hundred full-sized sculptures, has been exhibited on four continents and featured in hundreds of magazines and on many TV features. The most recent solo exhibitions of these works were hosted by Hurley Clothing in Costa Mesa, California in October 2013 and WOA: Way Of Arts in Cascais, Portugal in December 2012. He has been active with this medium continuously since its inception and in every area of the planet that he has had residence; Japan, Greece, Portugal and Brazil - with additional individual pieces made in Mexico. In December 2012 during an interview piece regarding his solo showing of surfboard sculptures at Gallery WOA in Lisbon, Fuel TV Europe (a popular action sports channel) declared that Ithaka was "the Godfather of contemporary surf art". Works from this project appear in the private collections of international surfing celebrities, Hollywood production companies and of the Rock Pacific Trust (founded by entrepreneur, Phil Rock).
Photographer
Ithaka Darin Pappas began experimenting with his father's 35mm and medium format film cameras as early as age five. He started assisting professional photographers immediately after high school and within a year began publishing much of his own work. His primary early focus was on portraiture, mostly musicians and actors. As a regular free-lancer for hip hop labels Priority Records, Ruthless Records and Quality Records, he helped document the early West Coast urban music scene. He has also worked sporadically in the fashion world, mostly for Fairchild Publications' Women's Wear Daily and Daily News Record. In addition, his photographs have appeared in; Essence (magazine), Elle (magazine), Glamour (magazine), Surf Portugal, Fluir (Brazil), Deja-Vu (Japan), Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles (magazine) North Shore Magazine, Publico (Portugal), Speak Magazine, Revista Super Som (Portugal), Rolling Stone, Shape (magazine), Switch (Japan), Teen Vogue, Orange County Register, The Beach Reporter, Thrasher, OnFire (Portugal), Vibe (magazine) and Water. His celebrity subjects have included; Bebe Moore Campbell, Brian Wilson, Chuck Liddell, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Gabrielle Anwar, Giancarlo Esposito, Lea Thompson, A Lighter Shade of Brown, Marlee Matlin, N.W.A., Oliver Sacks (writer), Richard Tyler (designer), Robert Anton Wilson, Rudy Rucker, Scott Weiland, Takashi Murakami (artist), Teddy Riley, Terence McKenna, WC (rapper), William Travilla (fashion designer). His advertising clients have included Young Chang Pianos, Independent Truck Company, Priority Records, Quality Records, EMI Records, Polygram Records, Redley Shoes (Brazil) and Ocean Pacific clothing.
Eazy E & N.W.A. photographs by: Ithaka Darin Pappas
Perhaps the most published (and republished) commercial photographic works by Ithaka Darin Pappas, are his early archival images of the influential Los Angeles Gangsta rap group N.W.A.. Pappas worked for their West Coast record label Priority Records between the years of 1988-1991 and documented almost the entire lifespan of the group, from their obscure South Central beginnings to their meteoric rise to controversial super-stardom...and their eventually disassembly. He has photographed NWA more than any other individual photographer. The pictures from these early sessions, particularly The Miracle Mile Shot, which features all five members of the project photographed on a white backdrop at Ithaka's own apartment in Los Angeles, has been printed in Rolling Stone, Q Magazine (UK), The Hundreds, Blitz Magazine (Portugal) etc., and was used as the primary backdrop for the entire NWA segment of the 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Brooklyn, New York. That same image also appears in the 2016 HBO documentary, The Defiant Ones, about Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine directed by Allen Hughes. These photographs are represented exclusively by TACK Artist Group of Los Angeles.
Aliens Of AkahtiLândia
In February 2015, the F+ Gallery in Santa Ana, California (founded by owner/director Micah Kersh) hosted an all insect-art exhibit entitled "Aliens Of AkahtiLândia". The exhibit featured over forty original sculpture, photo, and mixed-media works by Ithaka - entirely inspired by insects he had observed and photographed on his property in AkahtiLandia, Brazil, purchased in 2010. Six guest creators were in turn invited to do individual interpretations of some of these same insects. Participating artists included; David Clyde Kersh, Erica L. Ellingson, Ian Morris, Nathan Paul Gibbs, Will Thompson and artist/entomologist/Hollywood insect wrangler Steven R. Kutcher. The opening event also included a live presentation by actress/insect handler Diana Terranova who encouraged attendees to get over their phobias by petting and even holding large, exotic live bugs including tarantulas and giant whip scorpions Thelyphonida.
"So Get Up" Controversy
In 1993, Ithaka wrote and recited a poem called "So Get Up" for his weekly segment of a radio program called Quatro Bairro on Radio Comerical in Lisbon, Portugal. He later made an elecrto-style musical version with a friend in Manchester, United Kingdom. The next year, in 1994, he re-recorded it as a 'guest performer' to be the primary vocal of a B-Side single for the Portuguese dance music group called Underground Sound Of Lisbon. The song became an instant national hit and was later released internationally as a ten-mix, double vinyl set on New York's Tribal Records (a subsidiary of I.R.S. Records/E.M.I. Records). The song climbed to 8th place on the Billboard's Independent Dance Music Chart for the UK - and number 52nd in the United States. Since 1995, the song has been remixed a minimum of a thousand times including versions by such greats as Fat Boy Slim, Junior Vasquez, Danny Tenaglia, Miss Kittin, Armin Van Buuren, Cosmic Gate and has appeared on over 350 compilations with combined sales/downloads in the tens of millions. As the original music has been stripped away by each succeeding producer, the only singularly unifying element of all 1000+ mixes is Ithaka's poem and his vocals. Ironically, the song which was considered the first modern "Portuguese" musical export was released without even a "featuring Ithaka" credit even though Ithaka, a Californian, was the primary publishing rights owner of the track and never a member of the Underground Sound Of Lisbon project. Reportedly no actual record royalties were ever paid to Ithaka.
The Tomas Blots
Omni-present in all of Ithaka's forms of expression are The Tomas Blots. These are a series of eleven blot-like symbols that Ithaka's father, Tomas Pappas drew before him approximately two hours before his death on February 13, 1991 in Mesa, Arizona. These symbols appear in almost every aspect of Ithaka's artistic life; on his record covers, in his photographs and sculptures and very frequently as collage-paintings.
Influence in marijuana and cannabis culture
Although never publicly advocating its use, through the years Ithaka's name has been periodically associated with marijuana and cannabis culture, perhaps due to the street credibility of his hip hop song Escape From The City Of Angels or his long term sponsorship agreement with Hemp Hoodlamb (Hempworks) an organic cotton and hemp street wear company from the Netherlands. In 2011, Kommunity Growers, a legal Hydroponics Cannabis cultivation facility in Southern California introduced a potent hybrid strain of marijuana called Ithaka Blue in honor of the artist and his favorite color. However, the product was short-lived and taken off the market within a year, most users complaining it was too much like Skunk (Cannabis) to be considered anything other than by that name. In 2013, an e-cigarette atomizer/Vaporizer (inhalation device) named Ithaka, largely designed for the inhaling of marijuana oil vapor, was introduced to the public by Oakor Industries. However, it is unclear if this was an authorized or unauthorized usage of the artist's name.
Ithaka: poem
Ithaka borrowed his pseudonym specifically from the title of the poem "Ithaca" by the Greek poet, Constantine P. Cavafy, which in short summarizes that a journey is more important than the destination, that enjoyment of the journey of life, and the increasing maturity of the soul as that journey continues, are all the traveler can ask for. The poem, Ithaka has stated publicly, has served as a kind of life guide for the artist since he was in his early twenties. It should be noted that Cavafy's poem itself was inspired by the Homeric return journey of Odysseus to his home Ithaca (Island), as depicted in the Odyssey, even further connecting the artist Ithaka to his Greek ancestry.
Solo releases
Solo art exhibits (sculpture, painting, photography)
Group art exhibits
Guest musical appearances
Music used in other media
Articles and short stories - written by Ithaka
Book appearances
Magazine and web - articles and interviews
Documentaries
Selected commercial photography work
"So Get Up"
Documented uses of Ithaka's vocal & poem, "So Get Up" (1993) in modern music appearing under varying titles. Poem was originally recorded for Radio Antenna 1 in Lisbon, Portugal. However, most musical versions stemmed from uses/sampling of the a cappella version that he recorded for Underground Sound Of Lisbon in Portugal, 1994. Note: This list includes both legal and unauthorized uses.
Songs
Escape From the City of Angels2012
Dine N DashRecorded in Rio · 2004
Seabra Is MadStellafly · 1997